Analysis of "The Tortoise and the Hare"

The story “The Tortoise and the Hare” shows us that even if a person has a natural disadvantage in a challenge he or she can still succeed if they work hard and believe in themselves. It also shows the opposite which is if a person is overconfident in a challenge because of his or her natural advantages and doesn’t work hard and take the task seriously they can still fail the challenge. The story begins when a hare insults a tortoise for his slowness and brags about how great a runner she is. The tortoise decides to then challenge the hare to a five mile race. The hare agrees to the race and the race starts. Because of the hare being such a fast runner she takes a great lead and decides to take a nap. The tortoise comes by jogging at his “slow and steady” pace but the hare does not wake up. Therefore, the tortoise finishes first and wins the race. The tortoise has the natural disadvantage of his slowness but believes in himself and you can see this in the fact that he knows what he is up against and still challenges the hare to a race. While the hare has the natural advantage of great speed she is overconfident and you can see this in her vainly boasting of this great speed to the tortoise. Once the race begins the hare puts all her energy into running as fast as she can and loses focus. She gets tired quickly and because of her overconfidence decides to take a nap. The tortoise in turn maintains his focus and moves slowly but intently on the goal. In the end the hare’s arrogance became her downfall and she ends up stunned to see she had failed the challenge and lost the race.
You can see situations like these in our society every day. The tortoise represents hard working people who might have inferior circumstances or abilities when compared to others but can still thrive and succeed in their daily life. The hare represents people who have everything going for them but are arrogant about their abilities and therefore miscalculate their competition